Kusina Pilipina

Lately I've been craving comfort food, food that reminds me of my childhood days at the dining table in our old Oakbrook house. For many people comfort food is mac and cheese, meatloaf, and apple pie. For me comfort food is Filipino food--a hearty, savory meat dish drizzled over a little hill of warm white rice. My mom cooked it, my dad cooked it, my grandparents, aunts, and uncles cooked it and would drop off some their food at our house. It just takes me back to when we all lived within walking distance of each other. My sisters, cousins, and I did not grow up helping in the kitchen, so as we've all entered adulthood, Filipino food is not found on our stove-tops very often.

Living on my own, I've relied on cooking the simple but tasty foods including pastas, baked salmon, salads, and quesadillas. With my busy schedule, it just seemed to work. Then I realized, if my mom and aunties can cook Filipino food with their busy schedules, working and parenting, I can totally do it as a single girl in the city! It wasn't until just a couple of years ago that I attempted to replicate my childhood classics. With help from only the internet, I decided to take a stab at one dish. Since then, I've added one more Filipino dish to my repertoire each year. And each time I make them, it gets easier and tastes better. Here's my short list. In another couple of years there will be more, and someday my children will think of Filipino food as their comfort food too.

- Pork and Vegetable Lumpia
- Tinola
- Adobo
- Kaldereta

Maui Day 4

Chillin in the hotel with the fam. Xavier is wearing Mia's sandals. Little Mia and Big Xavier.
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Maui Day 3

Mia and Isaac in Wailea.

Maui Day 2

Ardon is the coolest cat on the beach with his t-shirt and backpack. He can only introduce parts of his body at a time to the sun. Poor guy.

Maui, Baby!

ALOHA! Day 1

March Sadness

My Huskies lost today. It was a tough battle against UNC, and I would have loved to see them play in the Sweet 16, but we just couldn't pull it off. Between biased refs, our careless turnovers, and a controversial finish, we were simply out-played today. The Huskies had an incredible season this year, and gave U-Dub fans a reason to show purple pride. They have restored my hope in Seattle sports, and I can't wait until next year. Here's my tribute to my dawgs.

Back in Business

Before. January 2011

After. March 17, 2011

Back in December, the roof in my office leaked after the snow and the rain came pouring down. I walked into my classroom one morning and found debris and puddles on the floor in my office. Weeks later, district maintenance men shoved/dumped everything out of my office, and into my classroom, and sealed it all off. It was an absolute disaster and it continued to stay disastrous for months until yesterday, hoping that somebody will come in, fix it, and put it all back. Since they dumped everything, I hadn't been able to find anything I needed, I had no desk space, the children couldn't find books they wanted to read, and it seemed like they didn't care about a messy classroom. It was keeping me up at night. Earlier this week, I found out that we are now more uncertain about when it will be fixed. Apparently, the repair costs are higher than expected, so now they have to "bid it out." The good news is, the exterior is repaired, and the source of the leak has been addressed. Now the drywall in my office is the only thing left to fix. Chances are, it won't get done anytime this year because of budget cuts. Yesterday, I hit my breaking point. I'd had it! I wanted my classroom back! So, I got in the zone. I spent 3 hours after school last night, two hours before school this morning, and another 2 hours after school today sorting, organizing, purging, and just getting my classroom back together. And it feels good! I told my custodian that if he hears from them, please tell them to not come back until the summer. There's no way I'm going to go through this process again. I'm back in business and I'd like to stay that way.